From the Magazine

Lonnie Bunch’s 10-Year Journey to Found a National Museum Dedicated to African-American Culture

On September 24, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opens in Washington, D.C. Jacqueline Woodson chronicles how the historian’s fearlessness and optimism led to the largest collection of African-American artifacts in the world.

“Every day I wish I was as strong as my enslaved ancestors. When I look
at what it’s going to take to build this museum, I take great comfort in
coming out of that community,” says Lonnie Bunch III, author,
historian, educator, and founding director of the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of African American History and Culture, opening September 24 in
Washington, D.C. Bunch is no stranger to struggle. In the 10 years it
has taken him and his staff to raise the $270 million needed to open
the museum, he has traveled the country and the world gathering
donations and objects. His fearlessness, optimism, and infectious smile
have led to the creation of the largest collection of African-American
artifacts ever gathered in one place. The museum, the 19th in the
Smithsonian, will house 3,000 items in 400,000 square feet of space
designed by David Adjaye. “All Americans took a piece,” the
63-year-old Bunch says of the drive to collect money and articles.
People not only opened their wallets, they “opened their trunks, their
attics, their basements and gave us amazing things.”

Bunch has brought together the shackles of an enslaved child, Harriet
Tubman’s hymnal, the dress Lena Horne wore in Stormy Weather, Chuck
Berry’s Cadillac, and even the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership. “This
is not a one-visit museum,” says Bunch, who received the Visionary
Historian Award from the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., in May.
More than anything, he wants everyone to remember that African-American
history is not only American history but also “the coolest thing in the
world. There’s humor, tragedy, love, sex—and rock ‘n’ roll.”